Kan not to mention past governmental view on Korean annexation pact+

TOKYO, Aug. 22 Kyodo -
The administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has decided to refrain from
referring to the existing government view that a 1910 pact authorizing Japan's
annexation of the Korean Peninsula was concluded in a valid manner in
accordance with international law of those days, government sources said
Saturday.
The Kan administration decided to take the non-reference policy in light of the
need to take into account South Korea's position that the 1910 Japan-Korea
Annexation Treaty was void as it was forcibly concluded, to pursue
future-oriented relations on its centennial, the sources said.
But it will not review the view of preceding administrations because such a
move ''would be tantamount to repudiating the assertion the Japanese government
has made since diplomatic relations were normalized'' with South Korea in 1965,
a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
Japan and South Korea mark the centenary of the signing of the treaty on Sunday.
In a prime ministerial statement released Aug. 10, Kan apologized for Japan's
1910 to 1945 colonial rule of the peninsula and pledged that Japan will strive
to construct ''future-oriented'' ties with South Korea. But his non-reference
policy may draw flak from conservative politicians.
The sources said Kan and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada decided to basically
uphold the position expressed in October 1995 by then Prime Minister Tomiichi
Murayama that the government ''recognizes that (the treaty) was concluded in a
legally valid manner against the backdrop of historical circumstances,
including the international relations of those days.''
The Kan administration has decided to take the non-reference policy, however,
given the fact that South Korea strongly condemned the position shortly after
Murayama delivered it in a parliamentary statement, the sources said.
The former administrations of prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe
adopted at their respective Cabinet meetings the position, in written answers
to questions by lawmakers, that the treaty was concluded in a legally valid
manner.
Therefore, Kan's non-reference policy may draw criticism from some conservative
lawmakers from both the Liberal Democratic Party and Kan's own Democratic Party
of Japan.
Kan has decided to take the non-reference attitude as many critics in South
Korea have come to demand a more thorough apology from the Japanese government
by taking the opportunity of the centenary of the pact's signing.
Speaking at a news conference Friday, Okada called attention to Article 2 of
the ''Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea,''
signed on June 22, 1965, that says, ''All treaties and agreements concluded
between the Empire of Japan and the Empire of Korea on or before August 22,
1910 are already null and void.''
Okada told the news conference the Japanese government ''does not believe that
there is any component that should be added to this.''
The 1965 treaty, signed by then foreign ministers of the two countries,
provides the foundation for the current relations between the two countries.
Kan also told a news conference on Aug. 10 that his prime ministerial statement
in which Japan apologized for the colonial rule of the peninsula ''was based on
the principles of the 1965 treaty.''
==Kyodo
2010-08-22 17:01:53